Happiness

Rating:
Summary: unbelievably twisted
Review: "Happiness" is the most disturbing film I have ever seen (and I am not someone who's easily disturbed). It's also excellent. It explores the darker side of human nature in a way that's not only incredibly brave, but incredibly funny. An arrogant writer becomes infatuated with an obscene phone caller. A pedophile psychiatrist drugs his family so he can have sex with his son's friend. An overweight woman is raped by a midget bellhop, and then kills him. These are just a few of the many twisted stories that play out in this complicated and unsettling film.

Rating:
Summary: Good family movie, cynical and emphatically hedonistic
Review: This movie is not for everyone. Yet I enjoyed it from the first second to the last. I regret that I didn't discover it earlier, the reason being the chains like Blockbuster are way too up their assets to stir a controvercy by allowing a movie like this on their shelves. But I bought it, and showed to my friends at one of the parties. Oh boy. Judges, lawyers, accountants, bankers, and their wives were laughing their armanies off. Or maybe it's the appetizer to blame. It is a cinematography at its best. You get sucked in and stay in for the whole ride. Somewhat voyeuristic experience, unique and dazzling.

Rating:
Summary: Best Film Ever
Review: This film is simply outstanding. When I first saw it in the theaters, I was slack-jawed and stupefied afterwards. When it came out on DVD, I had to go out and purchase it immediately.

The Amazon.com review calls this film "abuse in the guise of art," an ill-conceived criticism which shows why this film is so revelatory. The best films do not play to the moral rigidities or sensitivities of the viewer, but attempt to shatter these and reveal situations in new lights. Yes, there is a pedophile in the film. No, he is not glorified. Perhaps he is humanized.. but he is a HUMAN BEING. People can fall in love with others besides those of the opposite sex who have reached a certain age. (See Mann's Death in Venice, Lolita, etc.) If you want your TV movie-of-the-week with its sugarcoated, spoonfed morality, look elsewhere.

The comparison of the father's disturbed sexuality with his son's sexual coming of age is interesting as well. The son is preoccupied with his ejaculatory "rite of passage" into manhood. We're all sexual beings and we've all passed that rite.. but what happens when our intrinsic sexual natures go awry, as with the father?

The other stories are outstanding, especially Vlad, the simultaneously hilarious and disturbing "go-getter" new to America. The only flaw was the story of the elderly couple, whose apathetic stupor contributes little to the film.

It has been said that great literature suggests a vastness without explicitly saying it. This movie suggests a lot, and leaves one thinking. But for others, perhaps the movie will simply be a sideshow of freaks they can't relate to. I feel sorry for those viewers.

Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: While watching this generally well-made film, I could not help but keep wondering why it was even made. Happiness evokes anything but that emotion.

Happiness is what I think of as an unfunny comedy. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that it has few - if any - ha ha ha moments. Instead, it is just the generally the absurdity of the world depicted that makes it amusing. In a certain way, the world of this movie is funny, but it is generally just bleak and disturbing. Not a single scene lacks unpleasantness and often the viewer is even more uncomfortable than the characters.

Nonethless, like a car crash, you cannot look away from this tale of three sisters each undergoing problems in their lives. One sister, played by Jane Adams, is the most likable, but is also is such a willing victim to life that she is often unsympathetic. Another sister is so intent on having an ideal life she is self-righteously smug, even as her child-molesting husband is about to bring ruin to her world. The final sister is perhaps the only happy character in the entire film, primarily because she is so shallow and self-centered. Add to this mix the story of their parents splitting up and a pathetic obscene phone caller and you have a disjointed and disturbing film.

Even if a viewer disagrees with my assessment about the unpleasantness of this movie, few can dispute that there is just too much going on. There are at least four stories going on, all virtually separate from each other, and just when you get interested in one plot line, it disappears for twenty minutes and you practically forget about it. Everything ties together to a limited extent at the end of the movie, but it's too little, too late. Nonetheless, this is still a (weak) three star movie, based on the generally good acting and writing, despite the unhappy nature of the story. It is the feel-bad movie of the 90's.

Rating:
Summary: The Indescreet Charm of the Bourjoisie
Review: This smacks a bit of a director (Solondz)out to make something of a splash for himself. An attention-getting, semaphore-waving, "hey looky here how cutting edge, mod, hip, shoot from the hip, auteur I can be!" On the other hand, it's a pretty darned well directed movie, with many carefully-crafted, dramatic and dark comic vignettes, that don't quite add up to a great sum total.

Without going into the lurid details of what makes this movie so controversial (read any other review to get the idea), Solondz' main strength would appear to be his allowing his excellent ensemble cast the latitude to fully investigate their roles. Even Jon Lovitz, not exactly what one would usually think of when the word "method acting" comes up, delivers a delightfully unrestrained, semi-monologue at the beginning of the film that serves as the keynote address in the convention of the mad that is to follow. Perfect delivery. Perfect timing. Nice payoff.

Self-indulgent or not, the film will definitely hold your interest (even when you wish it wouldn't) and have you believing in the characters and the storyline. Don't watch with Grandma and the kids, unless you have an even more bizarre and dysfunctional family than the one depicted here.

BEK

Rating:
Summary: Are you ready for the uncomfort zone?
Review: I rented this movie thinking it would be similar to Welcome to the Dollhouse,..was I in for a surprise and major discomfort! I gave it a second chance and it was much more humorous the second time around.

Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Believe me, this is probably the type of movie you would only watch one time. I recently rented this movie because I have seen it listed as "one of the most disturbing movies". Now lets get this straight, there are disturbing films (Eraserhead, Blue Velvelt, The Reflecting Skin)which I enjoy and then there is DISTURBING ! Happiness fits DISTURBING to a T ! The movie in itself is good. Picture 'American Beauty' times three and then some! The acting, cast of characters (many familar faces such as the older guy from 'Roadhouse', Swayzes nemisis, and the rotten kid from 'Scent of a Woman'). What makes the movie most disturbing and would seem obvious from the description of course is the whole pedophile thing. Trust me it is not depicted as your dime a dozen, made for TV, sugarcoated pedophile films. There are NO punches pulled here in the least and I guess that is why I only gave this movie a 3(three). Not because of bad acting by any means or a bad story but the pedohile thing was so disturbing to me that it just put a damper on the rest of the film. Now keep in mind that this is a movie that has 4 or 5 other 'stories' going on all somewhat woven together. But every time the film would switch from the weirdo making weird phone calls to good ol' Dylan I found myself saying "geeez, here we go !" cringing ! I will just say this and then I am finishing up. Had I known the Dylan Baker scenes would have been so INTENSE, for lack of a better word, I probably would never had rented it. If it was not for this, I would have scored the movie higher but then again, the film would not be so controversial. Watch at your own risk and don't say I did not tell ya so.

Rating:
Summary: Un-Happiness after watching this movie
Review: I loved and own Todd Solondz's previous movie "Welcome to the Dollhouse", and after having read many glowing reviews decided to give "Happiness" a try.

Oh, brother - what a waste all the way around.

This movie reportedly is a very dark comedy, but I did not even smile one time. Not once.

Every character was hopelessly uninteresting and one-dimensional. Who cares?

The following could be considered "SPOILERS" although there is not much to spoil.

I am not easily shocked, or conservative, but much of the movie seemed to be there only so that those responsible could say "look, our movie talks about or shows this or that" - in this case we get semen shooting on to a wall in one scene, then later, semen shooting onto a balcony railing to be licked off by a dog. Wonderful.

Maybe the humor was in the sex-ed Q&A between the 11-year old son and father, where words of wisdom included the fact that it's not the length that is important, but the width (so says the dad), and that "come" can be a verb as well as a noun. Insightful!

I can't find a way to get any humor out of anally raping young boys - and I'm afraid Happiness couldn't find it either - unless it was the father's line to his 11-year old son that he would only jerk off instead of raping him. Witty.

OK, OK, I did find the one bit of humor. It was at the restaurant when Camryn Mannheim's character orders a hot fudge sundae after talking about murdering the doorman who helped carry her groceries to her apartment and asked for some ice before raping her.

But seriously, it could have gotten an oscar for best special effect - creating an animatronic character looking exactly like Lara Flynn Boyle. Look carefully at the DVD back cover. See Lara flat and unmoving? That represents her action sequence.

The rest of the characters? Look at the front cover. All of them are frowning and looking pretty grim - just like me after watching this movie.

Rating:
Summary: That's What Happiness Is Not...
Review: I spent a weekend recently catching up on cult movies, a genre that I seem to have increasingly moved away from as I get older. At one point in my life, I had a great deal of patience with experimental work, precisely because it was experimental. The very effort to establish new ground, to expand the vocabulary of the cinema (or of music or literature, whatever the genre) seemed admirable, in some cases even heroic. But the older you get, the less patience you have with youthful indulgences and pretensions. It just happens.

It's nice to be reminded that there are people out there, doing provocative, challenging work, that is also good. As I read some of the comments people have posted here re: Todd Solondz' 1998 film HAPPINESS, I found myself agreeing both with the positive AND many of the negative reviews. It is a difficult, actually oftentimes painful film to watch. The humor, mordant as it may be, is apparently all that saves Solondz from total despair. (I could be wrong on this point, since I know little about him and haven't yet seen his other work.) What I can say is that this stark, grim movie is one that sticks with you. You may end up wishing otherwise, but you won't forget it.

One point where I would differ with a number of the film's harsher critics. I don't know that the Dylan Baker's character is particularly sypmpathetic. He is portrayed as being complex and tormented soul--traits that would seem to be likely in at least some pederasts. One could say that Fritz Lang's classic film M's portrait of a child abuser (in this case, actually, a child murderer) more sympathetic than Solondz. Are ANY of the characters treated all that sympathetically, really? Perhaps if you have the compassion of the Buddha...

Rating:
Summary: Groundbreaking Cinema!
Review: This movie should be required viewing for all humans on this planet. We all come up with lies we tell ourselves to justify the horrible things we do to each other. What Todd Solondz did with this film and the more recent Storytelling was to expose the fact that even child-rapists and the lowest kinds of degenerates are capable of rationalising their actions. I think what offends most people about Mr. Solondz' films is he exposes these hypocricies in an amusing and entertaining way. Keep up the good work Todd!